1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing device capable of printing in a plurality of resolution types and both in a multicolor print mode and in a monochrome print mode.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to record data of characters and figures into a visual form, information processing devices, such as personal computers, are often connected to a printing device capable of recording the data on sheets. A variety of printing methods, such as an impact printing method, a thermal printing method, and an ink-jet printing method, are used in the printing device. Normally, a print head of the printing device is provided with a plurality of recording elements which function according to the particular printing method. The print head is scanned in a main scanning direction to print one band's worth of data on the sheet. Then, the sheet is scanned one band's width in an auxiliary scanning direction. This printing process is repeated so that an entire sheet can be printed out.
A conventional printing device is provided with a print head and a buffer memory. In the buffer memory, a storage region is formed for temporarily storing one band's worth of print data. When the printing device receives one band's worth of print data, the device writes the received data in the storage region of the buffer memory. Then, while the print head is scanned in the main scanning direction, the print data stored in this storage region is retrieved and the recording elements are driven in accordance with the print data. In this way, one band image is printed on the sheet. After the printing operation for this band is completed, the next band's worth of print data is written in the storage region of the buffer memory and printing operation for the next band is performed in the same way as described above.